– A set of simple modifications for the core rules of Warhammer Age of Sigmar that introduce skirmish battles – small-scale, intense fights between anything from a trio of models to a marauding band of fifteen models and upwards;
– Details of battling in skirmish formation – models fight as individuals, rather than groups, meaning each model is treated as a single unit. This alters the way certain effects and abilities work in a subtle way, and emphasises fast, aggressive, tactical gameplay;
– The General: each player chooses a general from the Heroes in their warband, who can use a command ability, artefact of power, and three new wizard spells from the tables supplied in the Skirmish rules;
– Battleshock: again, tweaked from the core Warhammer Age of Sigmar rules to encourage fast, brutal gaming, Battleshock can turn the tide of war in a single dice roll – you better hope your general is stoic in the face of slaughter!
– All-new command abilities, artefacts of power and mysterious terrain rules;
– Clarification regarding summoning and generation of extra attacks and hit rolls in Skirmish games.

The Shadespire Campaign

Included in the book is a linear narrative campaign, pitting two – or with some judicious tweaking, more – players against each other in a series of brutal skirmishes as your warbands fight bitterly over the incredible treasures of Shadespire. This campaign comprises six Battleplans representing a story from the murky dawn of your warbands’ first day on the outskirts of Shadespire, through to the climactic battle that decides the outcome of the whole campaign.

Between games, your warbands can earn and spend renown – the more renown earned, the more glory-seekers will join your general on his quest for treasure – and discover Rewards of Battle: charms, glyphs and relics that enhance the abilities of your warband in new and interesting ways.

Skirmish Matched Play

The true test of a general’s mettle is the meeting of equally-matched warbands, where tactics and strategy outweigh sheer numbers when deciding how the battle ends. This book contains a guide to putting together your own Matched Play Skirmish battles, with included points values allowing you to assemble matched warbands from models representing each of the four Grand Alliances. Any Battleplan from the General’s Handbook can be used in a Skirmish Matched Play game.

Here’s a quick pee at what else in within the covers to give you a taste:

Table of Contents

Right off the bat, note you get a grand total of 13 pages of Skirmish rules. That TRIPLE the size of the core AoS rules… just saying.

Here’s the Warband roster.

So in a nutshell what are we looking at here?

First of all, you get the first real look at exactly what Shadespire is and why it is becoming a key location in the Age of Sigmar mythos. Hint: it’s a city who tried to cheat death – until Nagash found out and said ENOUGH OF THAT!

You get simple rules for creating and fighting with warbands (a handful of models) within the haunted depths of Shadespire.

There are campaign rules that handle advancement, glory, death and awesome loot for the warbands.

You get a full point listing for the skirmish appropriate models in AoS. These points use a different scale than the normal game.

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Any chance the warband listings are thorough enough that you can play without codices?

Derek

Rules for all unit are free, they’re on their page on the webstore.

Zingbaby

So is this more like “KillTeam” AoS-lite? …or more like Necromunda/Mordheim/Shadow War …similar but different skirmish?

Jared Swenson

It’s aos kill-team. Nothing mordheim/necromunda/SW:A about it.

CloakingDonkey

except that “there are campaign rules that handle advancement, glory, death and awesome loot for the warbands” … sometimes, reading the article helps.

Jared Swenson

There are no stat advancements or injuries charts. The advancements are merely for your leader, and giving him items, and growing his warband. I’ve read plenty of articles. This is AoS kill-team

Mike Tbone Green

so its like path to glory

Amber Sbriglio

Uhm… please tell me Daemons of Slaanesh are included. I don’t see them on the Chaos page posted.

LordKrungharr

Yeah , really, my Cohort is nearly all painted!

Nathaniel Wright

Looks as though there is a second page to the Chaos section, so likely they’re tucked in there.

Of course it could be art OMG SLAANESH REMOVED?! TELETUBBIES ADDED TO AGE OF SIGMAR BABY GAME?

Bran D

Gonna have to wait until FW releases some stuff for it…I would like my Fimir to get in on this! Might have to homebrew renown for them until then 😥

rtheom

😀 😀 😀 😀

Matthew Pomeroy

I am somewhat hesitant here, but this might actually be something good.

OldHat

Why be hesitant? This looks great! I now can get a Fyreslayer force without actually buying a full army. Same for Ironjawz. That is nice as a collector/painter who doesn’t want to go nuts buying models.

Matthew Pomeroy

my hesitation comes from playing AoS as it is, for its current scale I find the game as aspiring to be a bottom feeder, but on an individual (small group of models) basis the system as it is could actually be really good. Its a matter of scale. AoS was promised as a skirmish, this proves it clearly is not, but This offers so much potential. rules that seem terrible for units make a lot more sense for an individual. I can wholly agree with the ability to get small forces of models desired without having to buy massive hordes of models. Which I think is another great thing. Some of the new faction models I like, alot I do not, but this allows for being picky with models, so to me that is a major plus. 40 pages is enough to make a good game, and the price is extremely good.

OldHat

I don’t recall a single piece of marketing that said AoS was a skirmish game. Skirmish-style vs Movement trays was a common thing mentioned by sites like BoLS, but not officially that I remember.

I am hopeful either way. I expect it will be fun, even if it isn’t balanced or anything. Options are always good.

Matthew Pomeroy

The staff at our GW was very adamant that it was a skirmish game. Pretty much how he pushed selling it to me.
As for balance, with a game like this balance is not always to be fully desired, it has campaign elements that will certainly make for more interesting combinations of forces fighting. It really does look like it could be the successor to mordheim. If that turns out to be the case (and not looking for it to be as close to mordheim and SW:A is to necromunda, just “close”) it could be exceptionally good.

It does look interesting. I may well be tempted by a warband of the scouting stormcasts or whatever they are called.

Rainthezangoose

Disappointed this isn’t more on the progressions side of things. This needed to be Mordhiem light. A fan version of this called hinterland exists already that appeared for what we can see here of GW official person to be vastly superior.

OldHat

We can’t see much here, but there is clearly a Mordheim option (Shadowspire), so I wouldn’t expect the fan version to be better. Especially when GW will be supporting this.

OldHat

Ooooooooh. Now I can buy some factions in low numbers and not need to get full armies. Just like Kill Team. Outstanding!

bobrunnicles

“Here’s a quick pee at what else in within the covers to give you a taste:”

A quick taste of….I’ll pass, thanks 🙂

Xodis

Looks awesome. Can’t wait to get ahold of this and try it out.

benvoliothefirst

The fact that Nagash, a walking god of death, is running around the Realms, while at the same time everyone else is trying to figure out how to stop their dudes from dying, so he can’t have their souls, is one of the strongest parts of the background. I’m so glad GW brought him back.